Klong
Sok (Sok River)
The Sok River
meanders through verdant valleys as it courses its
way across the region. Many birds inhabit the river
area. Black-capped Kingfishers, White-throated Kingfishers,
Common Kingfishers, Chinese Pond Herons, Little Herons,
Indian Rollers, Oriental Magpie-Robins, Little Spiderhunters,
Grey Wagtails, Yellow Wagtails, Stripe-throated Bulbuls,
Yellow-vented Bulbuls and lots of Vernal Hanging Parrots
are often encountered on this easy river kayaking
trip. There are certainly more birds than this in
the area.
Water Monitor
Lizards frequent the shoreline. Long-tailed Macaques
(monkey) are on the cliffs as are White-handed Gibbons.
Depending on
the water level of this free-flowing river, the start
is either near the headquarters area of Khao Sok National
Park or a bit further down where to river is a bit
wider.
The first section
meanders through thick jungle and rural farmland.
There are towering limestone karst cliffs on both
sides of the river. Several kilometers downstream,
the terrain opens up more and the river widens.
The river flows
all the way to Surat Thani and the Gulf of Thailand.
We average 30 to 40 kilometers per day usually. This
depends on the desires of our guests, but this is
a realistic distance for paddlers of average fitness
levels.
We stay in
comfortable, air conditioned guesthouses in small
rural towns along the way.
The
river is runnable from May through October and sometimes
into November, depending on the rain.
If you are looking for a river kayaking
trip that is extremely scenic and very easy, this
is your opportunity. This can be a stand-alone trip
or an add-on to our Khao Sok National Park trip.
PaddleAsia
offers two-day, three-day
and four-day river kayaking trips.
Longer trips are available on request. Each trip is
tailored to our guests' desires. From extremely easy
mainly floating trips, to distance paddling, this
river kayaking trip is suitable for just about everyone.
If you're into fishing,
especially fly fishing, that can
be added to your trip.
Click here to see a YouTube
video.
Note: we
course our way past Khlong Phanom National
Park, which is
tucked between Khao Sok National Park Headquarters
and Cheow Lan Reservoir. This park receives almost
no foreign visitors. In fact, on our initial survey
trip, they didn't really know what to do with us.
Foreigners are supposed to pay a higher park entrance
fee than locals, but they didn't know if they should
charge us or not. We asked them to charge us as we
don't mind supporting Thailand's national parks.
